Neolithic Calendars

The emergence of calendars was long thought to date to c. 3,000 BC. But in Warren Field in Scotland, Mesolithic farmers were using a calendar millennia earlier. Home But in truth these islands are filled with neolithic structures, which dot the landscape and which serve as mute testament to the strange, lost world of the pagan druids.

Scholars have long seen in the monumental composition of Stonehenge evidence for prehistoric time-reckoning a Neolithic calendar. Exactly how such a calendar functioned, however, is unclear. In a new paper, Bournemouth University Professor Timothy Darvill argues that the numerology of Stonehenge's sarsen elements materializes a perpetual

It's a timekeeper of some detail, a 'Neolithic computer' even, tasked with dividing up the year around less significant events. Last year, Bournemouth University archaeologist Tim Darvill published his claim that the monument operated as some kind of 'perpetual calendar', one based on a solar year equivalent to 365.25 days.

The term calendars itself is taken from the calends, the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb calare quotto call outquot, referring to the calling or the announcement that the new moon was just seen. Latin calendarium meant quotaccount book, registerquot, as accounts were settled and debts were collected on the calends of each month.

THE NEOLITHIC CALENDARS. The Neolithic period began around 10,000 years ago and ended with the Bronze Age more than four centuries later.

Scientists have long thought the famous Neolithic monument Stonehenge was used as a calendar. Now, an archaeologist suggests each stone within the structure, erected in about 2500 B.C.E., represents 1 day within the month for a solar year of 365.25 days, New Scientist reports. The megalith stones were arranged to keep track of leap days every 4 years and highlighted the summer and winter

Scholars have long recognized a Neolithic calendar in the colossal Stonehenge structure as proof of primitive time reckoning. The precise workings of such a calendar, however, are still unknown, as Professor of Archaeology at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom and study author Timothy Darvill published a paper on March 1 in the

An accurate solar calendar consists of about 365.25 days and is important for preventing the seasons from falling out of place such as having winter during June. Meanwhile, the Gregorian

But is the sole importance of the site to be placed on just a few dates in the year, or is there more to the complicated structure? Of course, its perfect alignment for the solstices make it the go to destination in England for the summer and winter solstices, but the full purpose of the Neolithic builders is still being fathomed out. Indeed, the mystery that surrounds Stonehenge is so

To adjust the calendar to match a solar year, the addition of one extra leap day every four years is needed, and Darvill thinks that the four station stones may have been used to keep track of